The first week numbers are in from Harry Styles‘s debut solo, self-titled album, and they’re beyond brilliant, they’re historic. This comes as no surprise whatsoever given the frenzy the “Sign of the Times” singer was able to drum up in the weeks leading up to its release, but still — YAAAAAY HARRY.
Styles sold 230,000 units, with a solid 193,000 of those going to straight-up traditional album sales. Billboard reports that this massive achievement not only makes Harry Styles the No. 1 album in the country, but also the album to top for a male artist from the United Kingdom, as it blew past the benchmark established by Sam Smith‘s In The Lonely Hour, which previously held that record with the 166,000 copies it moved upon its release in 2014.
Just let that sink in for a sec: Styles now has the best debut album performance of any male artist hailing from the U.K. since Nielsen started keeping tabs on sales in 1991. That’s huge, considering the nearly three decades of incredible music that’s come out of Britain since then, but yeah — Styles is now king of that metaphorical castle.
Another notable feat for Styles: He’s the second male artist from the U.K. to debut at No. 1, and the first artist to do that is a former bandmate of his. Zayn Malik‘s Mind of Mine became the first album by a U.K.-hailing male artist to premiere in the top spot on the Billboard 200, and Styles followed that up a year later. In short: The One Direction dudes are thriving in their solo careers, and this is pretty undeniable proof of that.
All of this not 48 hours after he joined Stevie Nicks (!!!) onstage at an L.A. concert and wrapped a week of performing for his takeover of the The Late Late Show with James Corden. It’s a damn good time to be Harry Styles, that’s for sure.
